Exhibition "Vasily Ermilov. Retrospective"
 

Design a matchbox. It would seem - a trifle, but the Ukrainian artist Vasyl Yermilov in 1922 received the Gold Medal at the exhibition in Leipzig for the design of stamps for a matchbox "in famine relief." Its layout design of clubs, wall newspapers in 1928 at the World Exhibition of Graphic Art in Cologne furor. And while most of his life he spent in Odessa, however, now it works for the exhibition were collected literally bit by bit.
More than 200 paintings, drawings, visual objects - from sketch design of cigarettes "Lenin" to large-scale design projects - the organizers managed to gather an unprecedented project, "Vasyl Yermilov", created in conjunction with the Moscow gallery Proun.

 The vast majority of the exhibits from private collections in Kiev, Kharkov, Moscow, London was collected, we can say three years. Almost as much time took the preparatory work. "Your Ermilov" - say about the Ukrainian artist from Moscow. And they not only collected "on susekam" works by the artist, but also prepared the catalog. The creative legacy of "one of the best designers of his generation" for many decades was not claimed in its historic homeland, and during a fire in the studio and did destroyed. That is why the exhibition opens with reproductions of works whose whereabouts are unknown, and organizers hope that maybe they will eventually be found due to the publicity of the project.

 With regard to the construction of the exposition, then it is worth noting here a novel approach in the organization of the exhibition space of Moscow's famous designer Yuri Avvakumov. As a professional architect, he strongly reconstructed "the sublime and complex" space "Art Arsenal" and organized the opening day of visitors in a single izvivisty corridor of 160 meters (attentive visitor must go through the whole 320 meters), composed of matched each other stands, thereby Emphasizing the constructive spirit of the artist. "Such a long exposure, I was not yet", - confessed Avvakumov. It is true that metropolitan public innovation survived with difficulty, and one lady called aesthetes corridor "gastrointestinal tract". The taste and color, as you know ... you can not please everybody.

 Of course, the exhibition project on the Constructivist designer, known primarily among art historians interested in the history of the Ukrainian avant-garde, can not compete with the success of large-scale exhibitions, which are already adept at "Art Arsenal." Still, the viewer must be prepared, and many will read the accompanying material. Modern man, accustomed to the riot of colors, the latest technological methods, materials, it is difficult to feel the brevity of a master of colors and shapes. But a modest palette of the 1920s and 30s. was due to dire economic conditions in those years. But, perhaps, familiarity with the works of Basil Yermilova raise new interest in the phenomenon of fellow Ukrainian avant-garde.

 But first success came to a small Vase, when a memorial address was his work, the only all students in art and craft of decorative painting studio Kharkov Society of literacy, has been sent to Leo Tolstoy, with congratulations on his eightieth.

 Son of a poor tailor Kharkov, Vasyl Yermilov (1894-1968) does not receive higher education. Parents were able to attach it to the shop to learn decorative painting application known artist and teacher Ladislav Trakai. In 1911, Basil went to Moscow. There he met a vibrant art scene and tempting "isms" which reached only echoes of Kharkov: expressionism, cubism, futurism ... Budding artist enthusiastically threw himself into the vortex of a bohemian, but the head is not lost, and two years later he had his first exhibition in Moscow. In 1913, the youth returned to Kharkov, where he received a diploma awarding him the title of master of decorative painting.

 Like most avant-garde, the revolution took Ermilov in art and society. Believe in it, he became the tribune of painting: he worked at Windows of Ukrainian ROST, streets and squares decorated for the holidays, agitation trains "Ukraine" - creating a synthesis of national and revolutionary. Era demanded of the artist participating in the creation of utilitarian things: stands and kiosks, billboards and posters. Working on the posters, registration books, he developed his own - "ermilovsky print" - dry, crisp, with well-considered proportions, which will enter the history book graphics. The twenties were the most fruitful and successful for the artist: a sensation at the exhibition in Cologne in 1928, honorary membership in the Ukrainian delegation at the Paris Exhibition of Art and Industry, together with Kurbas, Khvylovy and Dovzhenko ...

 Thunder in 1932. April 23 issued a decree of the CPSU (b) "The struggle against formalism in art." Socialist Realism was declared the only true style in the spirit of the era. The only major work Yermilova this time - the interiors of Kharkov Palace of Pioneers, the country's first palace for kids (the sketches are on display). From a minimum of materials with characteristic ingenuity and a sense of the zeitgeist Vasily Ermilov the designs of furniture, decorated interiors rooms and workshops.
 But come "creative silence," if you do not take into account the design of Lenin over the plants. After the war, in 1948, started the next political campaign: was checking on the loyalty and cleaning of all dissidents. He was again accused of formalism, but at the same time in the cosmopolitan and expelled from the Union of Artists. Only in the early 1960s, newly restored Yermilova the Artists Union, and in 1962 - five years before his death - he had his first solo exhibition dedicated to 50th anniversary of creative activity.

 Two-storey house on a street with an attic Sverdlov, which Ermilov lived 50 years, has long been a legend in Kharkov. The artist painted and equipped it to your own taste. It came down to him by his close friend, "the chairman of the world," Velimir Khlebnikov, who illustrated the poems Yermilov. It came to visit, Konstantin Simonov with his wife. Here with bated breath in the mid-sixties came to a young poet Eduard Limonov, and quite an elderly Ermilov undertook to illustrate a book of his poems. And in 1971 a fire destroyed a unique "ermilovskoe space" with designer furniture and murals.

 The current exhibition of "Art Arsenal" - an attempt to regain the lost space Basil Yermilov.